


Odd One Out

by zedille



Category: Chess - Rice/Ulvaeus/Andersson
Genre: Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-10
Updated: 2009-11-10
Packaged: 2017-10-16 22:22:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/169978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zedille/pseuds/zedille
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Svetlana does not know how to play chess.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Odd One Out

**Author's Note:**

> Crossposted from [here](http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5501488/1/Odd_One_Out).

Svetlana can play chess—not on a professional level, no, but she knows how the pieces move and how the game works. She is married to a chess grandmaster, after all. How could she not at least know how the game works?

A few years into their marriage, she'd asked Anatoly to teach her how to play chess, thinking it might bring them closer together and repair their relationship, but it hadn't worked. The rules had been easy enough, yes, but she hadn't been motivated enough to learn the endless gambits and tactics and strategies needed for competitive play. It simply hadn't called to her.

She realizes now that she should have tried harder to learn, tried harder to understand his passion for the game. Then he might have fallen back in love with her again. He might have stayed with her and the children, instead of falling in love with a woman who loved chess as much as he did and defecting for her sake.

She doesn't blame Florence. She can't blame Anatoly, either.

After all, Svetlana cannot play chess.


End file.
